Heartless
by grey-eyed-goddess
Summary: There were twenty-nine heartless things Boq could have done to save Oz from Nessarose, but he only did one heartless thing to doom Oz to a life of wickedness. Second places in Best Angst and Best Bessa at some point in time .
1. Water

Title: Heartless Fool of the East

Summary: Being Heartless isn't so far from being Wicked.

Rating: Teen for violent suggestions (I don't know)

Archive: Not any that I know of.

Author's Note: This is just something I thought off while eating some popcorn after posting chapter 16-which I need to do the page breaks for. Okay, did that. Now, this is just something I thought of as a possibility if Boq had given into the darker side of things. It's odd.

**Heartless**

Boq brushed a dark strand of hair off of his shoulder. His fingers tangled in the last ends of the mahogany curl, and he brought it to his lips. Kissing the hair, he pulled the tiny body of the woman into his lap. Her head rolled onto his shoulder and pressed against his clavicle. Her lips brushed his earlobe as he pulled her legs across his own. His hands moved across her calves, thighs and torso, and the frail nightgown she wore did nothing to cover her body. Slender legs stretched out beneath his hands with the pale flesh visible because of the shortness of the cloth. Her small waist drew attention to the thinness of her body, and the curve of her hips added to her smallness, but gave the illusion of weight. He could see the outline of ribs through her skin and gown. His fingertips traced the line of her shoulders up her neck to her jaw line. He brushed his lips across her eyes.

"Oh, Nessarose…"

The dull light of the room cast shadows across her face. Boq used one arm to support her body as he laid her in the low marble. The white marble cast a dull glow around her in the moonlight. He laughed.

"How angelic, Nessa." He stroked her calf as he sat down on the edge of her…_Bed_. His hand stayed on her ankle. His other hand fingered the bottle next to him; it had been an hour which meant he only had a few more hours before she woke up. He smiled. A small drop of water hit her left foot. He dropped the bottle and tightened his fingers around a small knob at the base of the marble. One twitch would do it…Just one little movement of the fingers would do it. Boq leaned down and kissed Nessa's lips. Mmm…Peppermint and tea. He pulled the knob, and he watched as the marble bathtub began to fill with water. Nessa's body shook once at the sudden wetness before giving into her sleeping medicine.

He laid one rope across her waist. The two bags on either end pulled her small body to the bottom. Three bubbles drifted to the top of the water. He turned off the tap. Brushing one finger across the surface of the water, he laughed.

"Not too hot, and not too cold; perfect." He wiped his hands off on a light blue towel lying near the tub.

"Goodbye my dear Rose."

Another bubble floated to the top of the water.


	2. Air

Title: Heartless Fool of the East

Summary: Being Heartless isn't so far from being Wicked.

Rating: Teen for violent suggestions (I don't know)

Archive: Not any that I know of.

Author's Note: So, I was just sitting here thinking about Wicked, and I realized that there were lots of things Boq could've done to save Munchkinland from Nessa…

**Heartless**

Her lips were parted, and every time she took a breath and let it out a few wisps of dark hair fluttered across her face. The tips of his fingers brushed the thin dark shadows behind her ear and rested against her cheek. Asleep but ever aware of his presence, she tilted her head to the side in some forlorn attempt to find comfort in his touch. He pulled his hand away as she breathed out again. Her eyes fluttered as his hands slid down arms to her hands, and her back arched and twisted as he gripped her hands in his. A lone ink stain dotted the side of her left hand where she signed off on some law or another to keep him by her side. Her hands tightened around his palms, and he forced his body to stand next to the bed with his back bent at the waist so that he could hold her hands while his mouth hovered inches from her own. Sighing, he pressed his lips against hers, but she never awoke.

Nessarose Thropp slept through her first and last kiss. The things he did for his country…

Boq pulled one hand from her grasp and kept his cheek pressed against her own as he reached across the bed with an open hand grasping for a pillow. She groaned. His hands latched around the edge of a pillow, and she nuzzled against his cheek while trying to turn towards him. Boq pressed her back down towards the bed with his arm never relinquishing her hand.

It was then that he pulled away and pressed the pillow from her bed against her face, and it was then that he looked away while her body arched, twisted, and tangled in the sheets.

When the movement stopped he tossed the pillow back towards the other side of the bed and closed his eyes. Blind, he felt his way towards her face with his free hand until he realized that her grip upon his hand was gone. Boq cupped Nessa's face in one hand, and pressed a kiss to her forehead. She was still warm.

The things he did for his country…


	3. Mirror

Title: Heartless  
Rating: Mature Teens  
Disclaimer: Yeah, I own Wicked. You've found me out.  
Author's Note: Every chapter contains character death.

**Heartless**

She had gotten the news about her father's death one day after she'd gotten the news about Boq's journey to the Emerald City in his most fashionable clothes and a bouquet of flowers. Her fingers had slid across the sides of her chair and onto the wheels as she pushed herself into her bedroom. Red and slowly leaking tears, her eyes betrayed everything she felt as she looking into the mirror, and Nessarose thrust one hand into the reflective surface facing her.

The face staring back at her had been the Madame Governor, and Nessarose Thropp did not wish to see that in herself.

It was when she glanced down at the small bits of mirror pressed into her flesh that she allowed herself to truly look at her face. Reddened by blood, the bits of sanded down metal glinted and cast small dots of light across her face. Nessa eyed the one shard of mirror embedded in the flesh beneath her thumb, and her eyes stared back at her. A drop of blood trailed down her palm across her wrist.

She glanced at the shattered shards of mirror scattered across the desk.

* * *

Boq found her slumped across the chair of her dresser with one arm hanging down against the wood of the floor where she had pulled her body onto the chair from her wheelchair. The tips of her fingers brushed the floor, and he kneeled down beside her.

"Nessa, this is some predicament…" Her eye lids fluttered open briefly, and Boq pressed one palm against her cheek. "I'm sorry Nessa." A bit of blood fell into the red puddle spreading across the floor as Boq pushed his body up and towards the door.

The door closed behind him, and Nessa's eyes fluttered again before closing.


	4. Tea

Title: Heartless

Rating: Teens

Disclaimer: Yeah, I own Wicked. You've found me out.

Author's Note: Every chapter contains character death.

**Heartless**

He mixed her evening tea with his towards her every night, and every night he would turn around with his arms outstretched offering her the delicate cup with two hands. Every night she took the cup, and every night she sipped the steaming liquid with a neutral expression as she stared into the mirror by her bed. Every night he stayed to the left of her wheel chair with his eyes focused on a dulled spot pressed into the wall some years ago when someone had taken down a portrait without taking care to be wary about the paint. Every night she turned in her chair to press the cup again into his hands as she licked the last of the peppermint flavored drink from her lips.

They did this dance every night, and tonight was no different.

He wrapped his fingers around the cup and placed it on the desk as she continued to stare into the mirror. She pressed one hand against her throat, and he gripped the back of her chair with one hand. She caught his eyes in the mirror.

"Boq, what did you do?"

"Nothing Madame and I think that has been the problem." He brushed his other hand through her hair. Her eyes widened. Boq pressed a kiss to the top of her head as her breathing quickened and caught in her throat. Her eyes rolled up. "Nothing until now."


	5. Stones

Title: Heartless  
Rating: Teen  
Disclaimer: I own nothing.  
Summary: If Boq had listened to the hole where his heart was supposed to be what could've happened?

**Heartless**

Near the end of her reign the hearts of the Munchkins were beginning to boil over with unrest as the captivity of their country carried on into the years. It was when the younger generation got wind of a new law that Nessa's loose signing of bills caused the unrest to boil over, and even those of the older families could not convince their children that the Madame Governor should not be dealt with before some kind of attempted negotiations. It was a generation of revolutionist overthrowing a generation of the cautious.

Boq found himself caught in the middle.

He did not force himself into the new sense of revolution, but stayed back until he heard the footsteps of the men upon the stairs. One held rope and one held knives, but neither had any intention of using them on the Madame Governor. Boq only nodded once when a knife was raised, and he knocked on Nessa's door.

"Boq?" She glanced up from the book in her lap as he approached, and it was only when she felt his hand her shoulder that she frowned. "What's happened?" It only took one look for her to bow her head and sigh. "You too then?"

"Yes, Madame Governor."

"Could you call me Nessarose?" Her question when unanswered as he tied her hands and carried her out to the waiting crowds. Pebbles and rocks dropped the ground as the groups of people saw her carried out, and they scrambled to find their smooth stones before someone else did. It was only when the sentence of treason was read out and the mayor gone from the area that Boq picked up a stone at his feet. She raised her eyes to his and pressed against the ropes supporting her around the waist as her body slid down the stake. He waited an half of an hour before he tightened his grip on the rock and glanced at the barely broken skin and forming bruises on her body.

"Good bye, Nessarose."

He threw one stone, and his eyes followed it through the air before it connected with her side of her head throwing her into blissful oblivion.


	6. Rafters

Title: Heartless  
Rating: Teen  
Disclaimer: Not mine.  
Summary: Angsty McAngst Angst story.  
Author's Note: I've got it planned out now, but I still need seven ways I haven't thought of that aren't too gruesome. Sorry for the angst and the shortness.

**Heartless**

His eyes followed the arc of her body as it swayed. The tips of her toes barely brushed the edges of the wheelchair, and her fingers tips bounced slightly against the fabric of her dress at her hips. Boq slid his right hand along her tights-covered calves and sighed. The silver shoes had fallen from her feet minutes before he'd reached her, and he marveled at her upper body strength as his fingers slid from her calves to her thighs, from her thighs to her stomach, and from her stomach to her arms. Tingling, his hands jerked as he pressed his left into the small of her back and laid his cheek against her chest over her heart.

…It was so quiet…

Boq pressed a kiss to the side of her arm that sent Nessa swinging again, and his hands left her body. He glanced down at the red, raw skin of his palms from the rough rope that he'd pulled across the rafters only moments before. He bit his lip. Her eyes were closed, and her neck was dark with the purple ring from the rope. He glanced at his torn hands again.

Nessarose Thropp continued to swing…


	7. Stairs

Title: Heartless  
Rating: Teen  
Disclaimer: The real writers would never have written this, and no one should've let me write it.  
Summary: Forty-one heartless Boq never did, and one the did.

**Heartless**

The first time it had been an accident. Boq had been sitting on the bottom stair, and the faint sound of rolling wheels hadn't been enough to pull him from the book open on his lap. Behind him and several feet upwards, the wheels of Nessa's chair forced their way across the floor until she jerked one wheel to a stop to avoid the nurse sprinting from her father's room. Nessarose Thropp had not noticed that the wheel she hadn't jerked was dangling over the nothingness above the stairs.

Boq turned the page of his book as Nessa turned the wheels. The sound of the back of her chair hitting the stairs was enough to pull his eyes from the page, and Boq moved in time to miss the chair sliding down the middle of the stairs. He sighed.

Nessarose caught him in the chest as she tumbled backwards. Before the collision with Boq, one hand gripped the bar on the wall, but it only managed to swing her around so that as Boq caught the force of the impact they were swung around into the wall. He had dropped her as quickly as she had fallen, but Nessa's right arm was around his neck and years of rolling the wheels of her chair had left her with enough strength to support herself. When she'd lifted her face from his chest Boq marveled at the blood leaking from the corner of her mouth.

_Monsters weren't supposed to bleed like humans. _

Standing at the top of the stairs years later, Boq remembered the smear of red across his chest from that fall as Nessa made her way towards him. Her wheels came to a stop at the tip of the stairs with her gloved hands holding the rings.

"Boq, what is it you wanted?"

He only needed to shove the footrest at the bottom once to send her spiraling backwards down the staircase. "I'm sorry." At the bottom of the stairs Nessa's body came to rest against the wall, and he watched her fingers twitch against the floor. "Madame."

-TBC-

Damn, Boq…


	8. Kiss

Title: Heartless Fool of the East

Summary: Being Heartless isn't so far from being Wicked.

Rating: Teen for violent suggestions (I don't know)

Archive: Not any that I know of.

**Kiss**

He'd bought them at a carnival years before, but now the idea was too good to pass up. The thin layer over his lips was enough protection from himself, and, as he opened the door to Nessa's bedroom, he realized that it was enough protection from her too. She turned over as the door shut.

"Nessa?"

His voice barely reached her sleeping mind, but it was enough to pull her out of dreams of dancing and odd hats. She opened one eyes to glance out into the darkness around her.

"Boq?"

"Nessa, how awake are you?"

"Boq, that's a silly question. You just woke me up now." Nessa smiled and frowned when she realized the position she was in with Boq standing at the side of her bed. "Boq, what are you doing here?"

"I need to talk you, Nessa."

"You never call me Nessa."

The silence was enough to drive her to her next question. "What do you need to talk about?"

"Well, it's not so much talking…" Boq moved quickly out of necessity because in the back of his mind the approaching feeling of turning away and not coming back was beginning to creep over him. "…as touching."

And Nessa didn't mind the small lie as Boq pushed her hair to the side and pressed his lips to her own. Her fingers twitched against the sheet, but as suddenly as it had happened it was over and Boq walked away with only the muttered words, "I'm sorry." As he left the room he pulled the wax coating off his lips careful not to let the outside touch his skin. Nessa's fingers touched her lips as the tingling sensation in the afterglow of the kiss persisted.

Her fingers twitched, and when Boq heard the loud 'crash' and scream come from her room he closed the door to the hallway, discarding the poison coated wax lips in trash can by the door.


	9. Snow

Title: Heartless Fool of the East

Summary: Being Heartless isn't so far from being Wicked.

Rating: Teen for violent suggestions (I don't know)

Archive: Not any that I know of.

**Snow**

She would wander sometimes outside into the gardens and inside into her mind. Her hands would push the wheels of her chair mindlessly as she thought of some past event in her life that had brought her here. Boq never mentioned the events she could remember that hadn't happened. Insanity would have taken away some of the blame, and he enjoyed the simplicity that came with blaming Nessa. So, he let her wander, and the small voice in the back of his mind would rationalize the wandering after overhearing the conversations Nessa carried on with the garden.

'_She's talking to you like you love her.'_

"Shut up."

Sometimes, late into the night as Nessa's illness brought on fever and seizure, Boq would wonder if the insanity was contagious. He cast those thoughts away as quickly as they came (because sometimes they came with the seizures). That day, when Nessa wheeled herself across the garden with every intention of speaking to a rose bush she thought was Boq, he didn't blink twice when she never returned for lunch. He waited at dinner and considered the possibility that he should go look for her, but his love of Nessarose had waned long ago. When he awoke the next morning and glanced across the vast expanse of white snow and ice covering the city, Boq frowned. Nessarose had never come inside.

Her body was curled around itself with her hands folded atop the last of the roses, and her skin was flecked with a fine covering of sparkling snow. Boq kissed her blue lips and pulled away to stare at the ice veiled roses surrounding Nessa.

"Fitting."


	10. Fire

Title: Heartless  
Rating: K+  
Disclaimer: Not Mine.  
Author's Note: I'm back! Wicked, I am back (kinda)! Please review and enjoy!

**Fire**

Boq had watched her struggling at first before gently tugging at the ropes that he tied an early. The knot was twisted around the splintered wood and wound their way in between Nessa's wrist. The light brown of the hemp paled her skin even further, and Boq brushed a strand of sweat and smoke stained hair away from her face. He was the only one who dared get this close to her. Even now, as a smoldering fire threatened to consume the wood stacked at her feet, the Munckinlanders stayed back to jeer from a distance. He avoided the one flicker of flame near her feet.

"It's no use struggling." Nessarose pressed her lips together as she pulled her body up with her arms. Thin trails of blood were beginning to pool on the edges of the rope before twining their ways down her wrist. "Even if you managed it, they'd only put you to trial again—now for escaping capture." Against the backdrop of grey smoke and red sunset, Nessa raised her head towards Boq. His eyes darted to the left, and she smiled slightly as he pulled her wrist and ropes up in one jerky movement to rest on the stake again. He winced as a splinter tore through her palm.

She smiled as a splinter tore through her palm. "I'm not trying to escape, Biq." He winced again. "How far do you think I'd make it dragging myself with my arms surrounded by citizens of a country that hate me? I'd only make it five feet if you didn't tie me back up here first."

"No one else wants to get close to you."

"You've never wanted to get close to me." Nessarose Thropp licked her lips, and Boq couldn't take his eyes off of the small drop of blood pooling in the corner of her mouth. She sighed. "It's from when you pulled me out of the chair." Somewhere in the distance, a Munchkinlander tossed a stone into the smoke, but the dense, dark grey tendrils from the fire only let him see far enough to toss it ten feet to the left of the Witch. "I'm trying to pull myself back up. You forgot that I can't keep myself up with my feet." Boq reached around and gingerly pulled Nessa's wrist upwards while using his other hand to pull on knee up. She sighed as her body rested against the stake at a straight angle. She smiled again. "I did go a bit insane, and they were right—you were right. All though, death by burning might have been a little extreme."

"It's from the old laws. All witches were burned at the stake." Nessa nodded as she felt Boq tighten the ropes behind her, and, when he leaned forward more the finish the knot, he pulled away with a frown. Nessa's cheek had been pressed against his chest, and Boq had fully expected the inevitable latching on that had come at every chance she had gotten before. Instead, she glanced up at him, and Boq could see the reflection of the red sky dulled by smoke in her eyes.

"I'm so sorry, Boq." When he kissed her, that back of Nessa's head hit the stake and bounced, but Boq pressed his lips harder against hers. As he pulled away they both licked their lips. Nessa smiled, and Boq frowned at that tastes of blood and smoke on his tongue.

"I'm sorry too, Nessa."

The next day, he collected the ashes from the fire and buried them in the rose garden behind the Governor's Mansion.


	11. Seizure

Title: Heartless  
Rating: K+  
Disclaimer: Not Mine.  
Author's Note: Right, I'll be nominating for the Second Awards soon. Someone write some Bessa and put it in the Bessa section please. By the way, if you nominate in every category, but you originally didn't know about some of the stories it just means you got to read some awesome new stories (aka-read some Bessa. The ones nominated now are amazing, but imagine all of the other ones you haven't read. I can't even chose between them.).

**Seizure**

She sometimes felt her body twitch in the night as she lay there trying to fall into sleep, and Nessarose Thropp would press her arms into the sheets trying to steady the slow malfunctioning digits that tapped against her bed. Twisted to the left, her head would force her cheek into the pillow and her eyelids would flicker twice. The tips of her fingers curled and tug into the deep purple bed sheets that were crinkled beneath her shuddering body. Nessarose's teeth clench together, her bottom lip trapped between them. The jerks and spasms of her arms gained momentum in their movements, and her sudden spasms managed to jerk her legs to the right and left under the thick blankets. The trail of blood from the broken flesh of her lip twisted around her cheek and neck. Nessa was unaware of her moans in the night as she tossed and turned as the connections in her mind misfired one after another. Her hair pulled free of her braid and tangled itself around her neck. If was in these moments that Boq watched from the doorway having been called from his sleep by the thumps and bumps of the night that came from Nessa's room.

He'd known that this day was coming since their third year of Shiz—the slight fidgeting of the fingers when she wasn't focusing and the jerking of the head when she didn't mean to. Watching from the door frame, Boq pushed his body from the wall and kneeled next to Nessa's bed. As her body stopped its jerking and restless fit, Boq slid his hands around her neck and pulled the long plait of hair from behind her neck. She didn't wake up as he re-braided the dark hair curled around her neck. Boq used his shirt sleeve to wipe the blood from Nessa's mouth, and as she turned over, into his touch, he stroked her cheek and took a step back to wait.

The next fit would come, and it would come with a vengeance. The second one of the night always did.

Her fingers began to twitch, her arms began to jerk upward, and her head twisted back to the right to quickly to be on purpose. As her back arched, Boq eyed the dark night sky outside trying to gauge when morning would come. Her spine twisted, and, in one fatal crack, Nessa's body twitched to the left, and her left temple crashed into the nightstand beside her bed. The fidgeting stopped as Nessa's head slid down the side of the nightstand and gravity pulled her body onto the floor. Her legs still in bed, she collapsed splayed out with her back on the floor and her arms crossed over her head. Boq sighed.

Vengeance.


	12. Wither

Title: Heartless  
Rating: K+  
Disclaimer: Not mine.  
Author's Note: So much closer to the end.

**Wither**

He watched as each day passed her by and left her sitting in her chair by the window. Long ago, he doesn't count the days but he vaguely remembers that it was around the time he stopped calling her Nessa, her eyes became unfocused on the world around her. Her body had shifted into automatic movement, and her mind had drifted elsewhere, anywhere but here. Boq isn't quite sure when he noticed the tick-tock-like movement, but even her voice had taken on the dull, lifeless tone of one of those monstrous, cogs and screws creatures. It was when she stopped speaking that he would let his eyes linger on her longer trying to find some memory of Nessa's old self.

He never found one, and every day her body shrunk before his eyes as her mind grew further from the earthly world. He never intervened, but he stayed off to the side of the room, by the door, watching for some sign of the old Nessa. When he never found one, he never took those extra steps closer to her. Why should he aid the Wicked Witch? This was not his Nessa; this was some withered memory of the young, innocent girl he met at Shiz.

And each day she continued to wither away. It was only four months later when Boq awoke to find Nessa unmoving and not breathing at the window facing the garden, that he wished he'd taken the term 'withering' more literally than he had.


	13. Ablaze

Title: Heartless Fool of the East

Summary: Being Heartless isn't so far from being Wicked.

Rating: Teen for violent suggestions (I don't know)

Archive: Not any that I know of.

Author's Note: So, I was just sitting here thinking about Wicked, and I realized that there were lots of things Boq could've done to save Munchkinland from Nessa…

**Ablaze**

It had been a long standing tradition in Oz that the evil of soul be burned out by the purifying act of fire, and it had been a short standing tradition in Munchkinland that the evil of the land by burned out by the purifying act of fire. The silent crowds walked through the streets at an easy pace, and those asleep in bed ever loyal to their leader no matter the circumstances, heard nothing. The select citizens of the land traveled on tiptoe with their footfalls masked by the natural noises of the night, and the crackling of the torches silenced by the wind whistling through the streets. They circled the mansion, the forty or so all shoulder to shoulder staring up at the dark house. The seven in the center with torches glanced back and forth between each other until the door to the house opened.

Boq had crept from the house last—the other servants had left days before, and Boq had been the last to remain. He nodded to the man in the center, and, silently, the seven lowered their torches to the wooden frame of the old house built in the style of the early ancestors. The crackling of the flames intensified as the dry, painted boards spread the fire up the walls of the house. Boq winced as the flames found the oils he had spread across the floor and up the stairs before he had left. With each passing second the flames grew higher, and the silence grew deeper. No one spoke; no one needed to. This evil would be forgotten and forbidden, and they would never speak of it again. The vows had been made four hours before Boq had guaranteed them that he could lock her in her room.

He only prayed to the Unnamed God that the sleeping pills he'd slipped Nessarose Thropp an hour ago had sent her into a deep, perpetual sleep free of flames.


	14. Roses

Title: Heartless

Rating:k+

Disclaimer: Not mine.

**Roses**

The roses against the Eastern wall of the garden had begun growing, and Boq sat outside in the cooling wind to run his fingers across the petals. The scent of fresh earth was still thick in the area even after the last of the rains had carried the last of the scattered dirt away. He slid one hand into the dirt, and underneath his hands he felt the steady heartbeat that had haunted him since he'd planted the roses. He's managed to gather enough bed rolls and blankets to make a small bed among the petals, and in the night he could hear the screaming of the flowers as the thorns gripped at his hands.

"_Boq, what are you doing? It's late."_

"_Nessa, be quiet."_

"_What?"_

Each raindrop that fell onto his face slid across his cheeks and neck to fall onto the earth and mingle in the salty tears that had lured him into sleep. Boq's fingers tightened around the thorns as he tossed in his sleep. Her voice pierced his dreams and kept them from coming, and, as the night wore on, Boq could hear her banging from her perpetual place six feet below him.

"_Boq put me down…Please, Boq! What are you doing? Boq! Please, Boq, you don't need to do this…Boq!"_

The deep ditch had been dug by the revolutionaries, as they called themselves, and Boq had handed her over to them in the dark of night. In the dark of night now, he could feel the steady beat of her heart as his fingers tightened around the stems of the roses nourished by her body. He whimpered.

"_Boq, please, I'm sorry! Boq!"_


	15. Slide

Title: Heatless

So, it's opening night tonight (which is why I've been gone), and I wanted to post something before I left for call. It's quite short.

**Slide**

He watched her slide down the wall, and a little part of him wanted to reach out to her. He raised his right hand, but took no steps towards her sliding body. Her eyes were wide and her mouth was open in a half smile as her body slid towards the floor in one slow movement. He could barely remember the sensation of pushing her up against the wall with his body and the quick kiss that had caught her off guard, but the feeling of the knife sliding into her side was stuck in his mind. He couldn't take his eyes off of her lips.

She was still smiling.


	16. Still

Title: Heartless  
Rating: Teen  
Disclaimer: The real writers would never have written this, and no one should've let me write it.  
Summary: Forty-one heartless Boq never did, and one the did.

**Still**

He was never quite sure when it happened, but the morning after he'd found her unmoving and un-returning of his love. Her body was still under his fingers, and, as he traced the line of her jaw from ear to ear, she did not flutter her eyelids as she had days before only to glance up at him with crushed eyes when she remembered. Her eyes were always the same when she remembered how he would not, could not, stay with her for longer than an hour.

Love could not overcome hate.

He hated her, but now he hated the way she was unresponsive to his fingertips brushing across her face and neck and shoulders. He hated the cold feeling of her cheeks and the blue tint to her lips. He hated the lack of breath against his neck, and he hated the cold, one-sided kisses. But mainly, he hated that he hadn't been awake for one final, real goodbye and apology when she'd fallen into this perpetual stillness.


	17. Sugar

Title: Heartless  
Rating: Teen (suicide and murderer)  
Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plots.  
Author's Note: I've been sick for the past few weeks and now it is time for finals, but I'll hopefully be posting nonstop as soon as finals are done. Also, this was nominated for stuff which is totally awesome. I strongly encourage everyone to read the other Bessa nominations: The Lake and Because You Are So Beautiful. I would not suggest reading all of the angst stories because they are all angst stories and will make you cry (alternate them with the Humorous nominations, maybe?). Any whooo…Enjoy and happy holidays!

**Sugar**

It was only five minutes after he had left the room that Boq realized that Nessa never took sugar in her tea. Three years of his eyes following the curves of her fingers and the gentle stirring of the milk into the drink had left his mind with no doubts about Nessa's drinking habits. He had watched her every morning and afternoon: cup, bag, water, milk, stir and drink. The edges of his memories blurred as his eyes from the past focused on the purse of her lips, and he shook his head to clear his thoughts.

'_Boq, did I ever thank you for taking me to the dance that night at Shiz?'_

'_Every day for nearly a year, Madame,'_

_She pressed her lips together and stirred the tea with one hand while pouring the fine granules in with the other. 'Thank you for that night, Boq.'_

If Nessa did not take sugar in her tea then…His body pivoted before his mind had even processed what could have happened in that room. Glancing upwards and starring at a serrated splinter in the door, Boq's eyes locked anywhere but the door knob. He twisted the knob, and the door swung open in silence.

'_That night was wonderful Boq. All of those years. No one had ever...' She continued to stir as she smiled. 'I'd never been treated like that before by anyone.' He nodded and she tapped the spoon against the cup softly and set it down. 'You're dismissed.' He nodded and stood, and her voice stopped him as he touched the door._

'_Thank you, Boq, for everything. I always loved you for it.'_

His eyes found her twisted legs and traveled up her body. She had fallen from her chair, and Boq folded her body into his arms. Gingerly placing her back upon the chair, Boq swept the strands of hair from her face and pressed his nose to her cheek. Running his thumb across her mouth, Boq brushed the specks of blood from her lips.


	18. Dose

Title: Heartless  
Rating: T  
Disclaimer: Not mine at all.  
Author's Note: Sorry, Sale, I changed my mind. The pond one will be up in a week or so.

NOTE: NOW PARODIED BY SALE!!! (well, the last chapter at least--you should read it)

**Dose**

He mixed the small packet of powder into her nightly tea once a week, and every night he delivered the bitter tasting drink to her bedroom for her to swallow in one gulp with a grimace crossing her face. He had been adding the packet to the tea every night for the last year since he had found her twitching on the floor of her room one morning. Boq did not want to relive that night. So, tonight, he poured the packet into her tea, stirred the dark liquid around, and very carefully tore open three other packets. Tossing the four empty packets to the side of the kitchen table, Boq stirred the tea again and watched the small grey crystals dissolve into the dark red drink. He sighed. Taking the steps two at a time, Boq found himself at Nessa's door in under a minute, and he knocked once.

"Come in, Boq." Of course it was him. She glanced up from a letter from the Mayor and frowned. Dropping her quill onto the nightstand, Nessarose reached out with her left hand. "Thank you."

"Of course, Miss Nessarose." She had already swallowed the tea, and when her mind realized what he had said, she glanced at the dregs in the cup. The corner of Nessa's lips turned upwards.

"Who will be replacing me?" Boq took the cup and handed Nessa a handkerchief from his uniform coat pocket.

"A council of elders who served as mayors over the years will be taking over in the main city tomorrow." Nessarose wiped her mouth.

"That's good. I'm assuming you upped my dosage?" Yawning into her hand and repressing a shudder as her body protested the amount of drug in her system, Nessa met his eyes.

Boq nodded. "The dose makes the poison, after all."

Nessa nodded with him and smiled. "Good night, Boq."

Leaning in and brushing a strand of hair from her face, Boq kissed her forehead. "Good night, Nessa."

-TBC-

Please review!


	19. Nail

**Nail**

Boq heard the footsteps on the stairs as dusk fell, and he left Nessa in her study to retreat to the confines of his room across the hall. Through the wood of the walls, Boq listened to the crushing of planks as the revolutionaries felled the door, the sharp shriek from Nessa, and the crunch of metal on wood as Nessa's wheelchair was tossed aside with her still in it. Another shriek sounded as the footsteps touched down on the stairs again, but heavier this time. Boq leaned his head back against his door and groaned. Again, a shriek interrupted the sound of footsteps, and Boq clenched his fist against his sides. Someone knocked at his door. Turning, he opened it and stared into the eyes of a revolutionary half his size with a hammer in one hand and a bag of nails in the other.

"Master Boq, due to your courage in handing over The Witch, you have been granted a place of honor at the ceremony."

Boq swallowed. "Of course. I'll-I'll walk with you."

He didn't remember the walk to the cemetery or the task of forcing his way through the screaming crowd, but his mind refocused when the mob fell silent at the sight of him next to the witch. Nessa was splayed out on the platform before him with her twisted legs beneath her, and she raised her face to his to meet his eyes. Boq frowned at the specks of blood that dotted her cheeks, neck, and knuckles. The man who had escorted him through the crowd raised his hand with the hammer and called for silence from the already soundless and captivated crowd.

"Tonight The Witch will be put to perpetual rest under the earth of our land! She will be buried under the rules of the Ancients so that her wickedness will never again plague our society! She will be crushed under the weight of our justice and goodness to never again rise from the wicked underworld whence she came! She will be ours!"

And as the crowd screamed, Boq caught sight of his mother in the back with both fist in the air clutching a torch and screaming for justice. His father stood next to her and nodded at Boq with a smile gracing his lips.

"That's my son! My son will rid Oz of her wickedness! Hail to my son and to goodness!"

The crowd answered back with a fresh wave of flames and fights to be closer in an attempt to see the witch's demise. Boq glanced down at Nessa who had, not once, taken her eyes from the night sky dulled by the smoke of a hundred torches. She was praying. Boq followed the movement of her lips and knelt down beside her, and, taking her into his arms, he turned his back towards the mob. She leaned her cheek against his chest as he lowered her into her coffin. The rough wood scratched her skin, and the splinters tore into her dress. The man passed off the hammer to Boq, and dropped the bag of nails onto the platform. Boq gripped the hammer in one hand and a nail in the other, and Nessa lay still in the coffin realizing that movement would only pain her more. Balancing a nail over her left ankle, Boq rammed the head of the hammer into the nail in one movement, and the nail vanished into the flesh and bone of Nessarose's leg. She screamed, and the crowd silenced at the sound of the first nail be driven into The Witch. Nessa's back arched under the shock of his blow, and she focused on not moving her injured side. Boq held her leg staight while balancing the next nail over the dent of the knee. Another crack of metal on metal, another thud of metal on wood, and the crowd fell into a trance as it listened for the next sound of goodness.

Boq kept his back to the crowd, and Nessa groaned into the wood of the coffin as he drove a nail through her right ankle…her right knee…Nessa rolled her head to one side and then the next as Boq tried to finish his task, and, as he balanced the fifth and deadly nail over her heart, she whispered something inaudible to him. He leaned in, and the tears that had been sliding down his cheeks since the beginning fell onto Nessa's neck.

"I played my part and you played yours." She licked her lips. "Two little pawns all alone in a row, one to sacrifice the other in a single deadly blow…"

"…The dead one to leave a man bereft, and the live one to fix the world that is left." Boq rewrapped his fingers around the hammer in the silence that followed as the crowd swayed to and fro in anticipation for the next blow. He smiled at the memory of their other rhyming games from Shiz, before the Governorship.

"Boq, it's tradition to start with the wrist."

"I know."

"I can't feel anything below my waist."

"I know."

Nessarose Thropp smiled, and Boq drove the fifth nail into her heart.

-TBC-

I got this from some vague memory of a book I read as a child that discussed the superstitions of abnormal creatures, and how witches were killed with nails driven through their joints to keep them from coming back or something. I could be wrong. Either way, please review!


	20. Forgive

**Shot**

The shot went off in the silence of the winter night. A layer of frost completely covered the only window in the room, and the dulled light from the moon drifted across the room towards Boq. His eyes were wide and staring. A streak of red ran across is cheek and trailed down around his lips until it dripped onto the collar of his shirt. The small flower of blood began to blossom on his shirt as it seeped through the linen and stained his skin. Boq's hands were shaking.

His hands were shaking but he couldn't uncurl his fists. His right fingers tightened on the trigger of the musket as he trembled, and the knuckles on his left hand were white. The splattering of red against the wall behind the bed dripped onto the floor. Boq's body shuddered once more, and he dropped the gun as he fled from the room. Boq slammed the door to Nessa's bed behind him and vomited in the hallway. Falling against the wall and sliding down to the floor, he pulled the revolver from the pocket of his uniform and let his head fall against the wall. Boq pressed the barrel against his temple, and his tears began to mingle with the blood on his face. "Nessa, forgive me."

The second shot went off in the sound of sirens in the winter night.

**-TBC-**

Author's Note: I just finished finals week so things should pick up from here. There are only a few more chapters of things Boq never did until that one thing he did do. It's anticlimactic. :D


	21. Dancing

**Dancing**

Boq couldn't help but frown as he watched Nessa's feet dangle above the platform. The switch not pulled, and yet she was already dying. The staccato beat of her fingers against the rope binding her wrists reached his ears, and he glanced up at eyes as she searched the crowd for his face. Nessarose caught his eyes with her own, and Boq smiled at her. The rough rope wrapped around her neck tore at the flesh of her throat, Nessa tried to cough and breathe. Boq watched the blood pool atop the rope from the corner of his eye as he glanced at the public executioner gripping the trapdoor switch. Turning his eyes back to Nessa, Boq mouthed 'you're going to dance again.' Nessa smiled slightly as she twisted her head in an effort to shift the rope, and then she was gone.

Her body swung through the air with her feet gliding above the ground in a smooth figure eight, and her neck snapped. A strand of hair fell in front of her eyes, her fingers stopped tapping, and she danced three feet above the ground. The crowd cheered twice and ran off into the night in anticipation of drinking and singing. Boq felt the hands of several dozen Munchkins slap his back in thanks for the free night of drinking without fear of curfew, but as the crowds dispersed, Boq walked towards the still slightly swinging body of Nessarose.

Kissing his fingertips, Boq pressed his fingers to her forehead and smiled. "You went out dancing, Rose."

-TBC-

This was inspired by an Oz quote by Kathryn Erbe's character about her execution style. "I want to go out dancing."


	22. Glint

**Glint**

Boq ran from the Governor's mansion stumbling and screaming towards the city, and the townspeople shrieked as he passed them. The dim light of the setting sun glinted off of the tin that had replaced his body. The metal man that came running from the Witch's house spurred the citizens to cower behind the locked doors of their houses, and the sight of another victim of the Witch's wickedness spurred the revolutionaries to whisper behind the half-closed windows of their taverns. Boq fell to his knees at the feet of the mayor. His hands gripped the mayor's ankles, and the man made of metal mumbled incoherently to the man in charge of his safety.

The mayor glanced down at the monster clutching his feet and gulped. As the kneeling man spoke the mayor's eyes widened in realization as to who was the cause of this. …"She cannot be left like this or she will be our country's ruin!"

"Man of Tin, you say our Madame did this to you? She destroyed a man out of spite?"

"She is no governor of mine and she is no madam!"

The revolutionaries grumbled from their stools in the corner, and one raised a glass. The Tin Man peered up from the floor, the mayor turned his head to the plotting men, and the man with a raised glass of sparkling water grinned.

"It's time."

-pagebreak-

They found her collapsed on the path leading from the house where she'd fallen after chasing after him. Boq had not followed the crowd, but Nessa saw his face in the eyes of every person pulling at her body as she was dragged down the street towards the center square. Standing atop the fountain in the square, Boq held an axe in both hands with the bar crossing his chest. Nessa tried to call out to him but choked as she opened her mouth, and Boq smiled down at her as she was tossed at his feet. A path of blood trailed after her where the shoes had dug into her skin.

"Hello, Madame Governor." He shifted the axe to the right and raised it above his head. Nessa closed her eyes against the glassy silver.

"Boq, please, I-"

And the axe fell.

-TBC-

I'm thinking that, by now, I've done the disclaimer and summary and what not enough times. If not, well, please refer to the previous chapters for those. I hope that everyone enjoys these next chapters. Please review and have a fun rest of the year! Thank you all!


	23. Arrow

**Arrow**

Nessa sat on the window seat of her bedroom every night staring out into the garden. Hand pressed against the glass tonight, she cocked her head to the left and leaned it against the cool glass of the window. Boq stood at the desk with a tea cup in hand. As Nessa peered into the darkness outside, he placed the cup on the edge of the desk and walked towards her. Nessa never took her eyes from the garden, but muttered to Boq, "there's someone in the garden."

"Madame?"

"Maybe more than one someone…" Her voice dropped off as he neared, and Nessarose narrowed her eyes. Boq gulped. Reaching out towards her, Boq brought his hand to her cheek. She turned her head sharply, and Boq jumped as Nessa's wide eyes glared into his. He brushed his fingertips against her neck. "What are you doing, Boq?"

"I…I'm not sure." He swallowed again and placed his other hand on the glass behind her head. He could not lie to her, but he could not let her turn around. Nessa raised one eyebrow and turned back towards the window. Just as her profile was perfectly cut against the light cast on the window, Boq twisted her face back towards him and pressed his mouth to her lips. The back of her head hit the window. Nessa squeaked as she raised her hands to his chest to push him aside, but relaxed a second later as a moan rose in the back of her throat.

Boq had expected to pull away after a few seconds. However, with Nessa's lips parted against his and her fingers tugging at the ends of his hair at his neck, Boq couldn't move far away enough to stop from stumbling forward. He slid his hand at her neck around her shoulders to balance against the window with his forearm, and his hand pressed to the glass slid towards the ceiling. The hand jumped from the window to Nessa's waist as he fell. Her back arched, and Boq let his hand slide down to her stomach, to her hips, and to her thighs. She jumped in his arms as Boq's tongue slid across her lips.

The first arrow flew from the garden as Boq's fingers tightened around her legs. Glass shattering at Nessa's back, Boq backed away with one hand against his stomach. Nessa gasped. Her fingers twisted around the shaft of the arrow embedded in her chest, and she glanced up at Boq. He was still panting, and had forgotten why he had turned Nessa's attention from the garden. Another arrow flew through the broken window and through Nessa's shoulder. Boq turned from Nessa's eyes, but winced as his stomach curled around towards the door. He brought his hand to the space before his eyes.

A line of blood was twisted around his fingers from where the first arrow had torn at his skin when it had pierced Nessarose. He turned back to where her still body lay. Her fingers twitched twice, and Boq shook his head as he walked out the door.

"I guess I deserved that."

-TBC-

Who does not like a little Bessa making out with their winter break?


	24. Gift

**Gift**

He wasn't quite sure what it was, but the slightly squishy paper package on his desk was beginning to seep and trickle onto his rug. It must have been there since the morning. With one hand, Boq reached out and pulled at one end of the string tied around the bulky, brown paper. He side. As he searched through the pockets of his coat for his pocket knife a creeping feeling of dread crept up his spine, and, giving up on his lost knife, he untied the rough rope while leaning over the desk. The tip of his nose brushed the brown paper as he pulled it back, and the distinct scent of copper overwhelmed his nose. Boq swallowed the metallic taste in his mouth as he stumbled away from the opened parcel.

Breathing in the scent of blood with each breath, Boq could not take his eyes off of the heart speared on his pocket knife.

**-TBC-**


	25. Qualms

**Qualms**

Boq had no issue with Nessa's lips, neck, fingers, or hips. He had no qualms with her fluttering eyelids or 24 quick breaths, and he had no desire to resist the urge to bend her neck back slightly displaying the bit of flesh at the side of neck. Nessarose sighed, moaned, protested, begged, and whimpered all while under the authority of his fingers and teeth, and Boq could find nothing more enticing than the feeling of her speeding pulse against his lips as he trailed his kisses up her neck and to her lips. Her finger pulled at his hair and shirt, and silver jacket he wore was lost under some table as Boq picked Nessa up and leaned her against the banister.

Her twisted legs barely brushed the wooden floor, but Boq kept her pinned in-between his hips and the stair railing. He smiled into her neck.

Boq had no issue with the way she choked out his name as his fingers slid up the length of her thigh, and Boq had no qualms with her nails as they tore down his back. With one hand on her left hip and his other hand around her shoulders, Boq broke away from her lips long enough to hear her mutter, "I've wanted this for so long." He kissed her again let go of her shoulders.

Looking down at her twisted body from the fourth floor banister, Boq licked his lips as a pool of bleed began to spread out underneath her head.

"I feel the same way, Nessa."

**-TBC-**


	26. Paper

**Paper**

A small bubble burst on the surface of the lake as Boq starred into the water. Fiddling with a letter in his left hand, Boq frowned as the bubbling from the depths of the small lake ceased, and his right hand clenched against his breast pocket. The crinkling of paper in his shirt dragged his eyes from the water to his chest as he opened his coat. Smiling slightly, he looked back up towards the lake as a small pink paper rose slid across the surface and rode the small waves. The paper pieces of a dozen other roses hung suspended in the water with only one other half crushed flower barely hanging on to the edge of the rocks surrounding the lake.

"I thought you were holding all of them Nessa."

Bringing the red rose to his lips, Boq kissed one petal and tossed the rose into the lake. He turned his back to the lake, and walked back towards the empty governor's mansion.

"Happy Saint's Day, Nessarose."

-TBC-

Please review.


	27. Fever

Title: Heartless Fool of the East

Summary: Being Heartless isn't so far from being Wicked.

Rating: Teen for violent suggestions (I don't know)

Archive: Not any that I know of.

**Fever**

Nessarose had said once, jokingly and with an upwards tilt of her lips, that Boq was the cause of her sudden and intense fevers that plagued her at night. Being a young man of normal hormonal levels, Boq laughed with her and enjoyed in the joke, but allowed the idea that it was truly his fault to linger in the back of his mind. It was flattering, really, to think that Nessa's delirium-causing fevers were a direct result of his words and soft touches before leaving for his room at night.

It was the years after that when Boq stopped being flattered and started to worry. Nessa's fever would begin earlier and end later, and he would stay by her side as her insanity seeped into her everyday duties. Those were the days when she enslaved the country. He couldn't really, truly hold her accountable for those decisions, but he did anyways (at least, he did on the outside). The fevers slowly grew hotter after that and as a result her hallucinations greater. Boq could only marvel at how she was still alive and somewhat lucid during the day.

That night, though, he woke up to a loud sound coming from her room, and there was a puddle of water spreading out from the bathroom by the time he walked to her chambers. The hem of his pants soaked up the excess water as he splashed across the floor and sighed at the sight. Nessa's closed eyes looked almost peaceful under the icy water of the tub. Boq sat on the edge of the tub with one hand in the water while Nessa floated, dead, beneath him.

Sometimes he wished he had never asked her to that damned dance.


	28. Thunder

Author's Note: Hey, look at that, a new chapter! How did this get here? I may add some to this note at a later date. As always, please review. I hope you enjoy it (sorry Zarrian, no deadly cotton candy). ZOMG. I reread Qualms and noticed I had "..Boq licked his lips as a pool of bleed began to spread out underneath her head." I'm a genius. I apologize for my word failures. They sadden me since I'm typically hilariously grammared. Yes, grammared. It's a word as of right now. No more ridiculousness. Here is a somewhat serious angsty bit of fiction.

**Heartless**

Boq realized, a bit too late to save the entire country, that the Madame Governor was quite insane, and that, to save what remained of his crumbling country, he had to take matters into his own hands. His own hands being the hands of a well received doctor visiting from a neighboring country whose skills in healing the lunacy of people was renowned. Admittedly, arranging this doctor appointment for the Madame required several weeks of intense letter exchanges and several days of equally taxing face to face conversations that detailed how the Madame would suddenly cease to be awake for a convenient twenty-four hour period.

It was a sacrifice Boq was willing to make.

And, on that night which would ring in a new year for his country, Boq disguised strychnine to taste like peppermint, and the small dose was just enough to induce convulsions after a few silent moments of Boq standing and Madame sitting. He yawned. She choked. The doctor knocked, and Boq led him to a prepared room of straps and machines. The doctor, being a master of his craft, checked the lines, stroked the buttons, and glanced once at the woman on the bed who had just finished convulsing thanks to the diazepam Boq had snuck into the mansion. It had taken two weeks to find on the underground market and shops.

Another necessary sacrifice.

"Miss Nessarose Thropp, I am going to attach these to your body so that the electrical currents may pass through your skin and stimulate the areas of your brain that have been lacking in activity and causing a small bit of insanity. It is perfectly safe and you have nothing to fear. Your upstanding servant Boq here has even made you a bit of tea for when you wake up and are feeling perfectly refreshed." Boq nodded. "This needle contains something to help you relax. Now, you won't feel a thing…"

Sliding the needle beneath her pale skin into the dark vein that Boq's eyes were fixed upon, the doctor glanced up at his patient. She was unconscious, and she had been completely separate from the waking world since her last bit of peppermint tea. "Now, begin counting backwards."The doctor nodded at Boq. Boq nodded back.

They had to keep up appearances and do things all proper like even if it was just the two of them. It meant less lying in the end.

"Very good." He handed a padded strap to Boq for the patient's mouth. "Now, this will keep her from biting off her tongue." Boq tossed it to the side table. "While the rest will keep her from flopping off the table." The doctor brandished a small electrode at Boq and began strapping her in. "She needs to stay attached to these for it to work." Boq rolled his eyes. He was always strapping her into things.

The things he did.

He watched from a chair in the corner as the doctor went about the room placing things on her skin, and for once brief and fleeting moment his fingers curled into a fist when the doctor slid several sticky slips of silver paper onto her thighs and chest. Boq bit the inside of his cheek and imagined his family. The doctor was done and pressing some button with his fingers. The Governor twitched once, and the doctor tapped the button three times in quick succession. She was shuddering now.

The things he did.

Her body was shaking and striking the table with enough force to snap her wrist, and Boq tightened his teeth on the inside of his cheek. There was no more room for pity. This was necessary. Her legs moved for the first time in her life, but she was in a world of pain and lightening too far away from this world to notice. Nearly snapping the table in two, her spine struck the silver work station and a bit of blood hit Boq's face. He licked his mouth as her teeth bit through her lip.

Oh gods, the things he did.

His hands were shaking as her body stopped moving. The doctor didn't bother to touch her neck.

"Time of death, 2:38 on the morning of the third day of the new year." He shook Boq's hand, congratulated him on a job well done, and left Nessa strapped to the table. Boq shook the doctor's hand and vomited in the corner.

"Oh gods, Nessa, the things I did."

**-END-**

There's only one more thing Boq never did. The final chapter will be what he did do to Nessa.


	29. Party

Look at this tomfoolery. Me writing the bad fic, you reading the bad fic, and all of us wanting to see Wicked again. Well, I suppose I'm back for a spin. I'm going to attempt to finish my fics—starting with this one! I had attempted NaNoWriMo, but that was 30000 words short so I'm back here. Here's the final chapter of things Boq never did (feeding her to dogs, drowning her, letting her kill herself, so on and so forth). This is by far not the best of the chapters, but I am sadly and surprisingly running out of ways to kill her.

**Party**

It was, if Boq did say so himself (and he did), a smashing party. The mayor was in attendance with several of his very pretty, very new to alcohol daughters, and as the newfound hero of Munchkinland Boq felt slightly entitled to a bit of drunken shenanigans with pretty girls. The only fair option after the last few years seemed to be drunken shenanigans with that blonde (albeit Munchkin) girl eyeing him in the corner.

Of course, that could be the fruit punch. He had been handed a few glasses of it every hour and it certainly wasn't just lemons, melons, and pears. He snorted into his cup and glanced up at the girl—

Oh, sweet Ozma, how did he end up by that monstrosity and how did he let it get between him and his pretty blonde girl? Boq thought the dogs had taken care of all of it. Useless little ankle-biters, the Munchkins. He'd handed her to them on nothing less than a silver platter yet they couldn't even get rid of all of her.

He downed his drink, praying to anyone that it was suddenly about fifty percent more alcohol in it, and made his way over to the table with Nessarose's head set in the middle (someone's attempt to be artistic, the little bastard). Twisting her head around so that her soulless eyes were staring at the wall, Boq smiled. He brushed a hand on the tablecloth, straightened his collar, and picked up another drink.

"Drunken shenanigans time. Thank you, Ex-Madame Governor."


End file.
